Mother Love And Abortion

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1988.

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book From noted feminist and longtime columnist for The Nation, award-winning author Katha Pollitt’s Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights presents a powerful argument for abortion as a moral right and social good. As the Supreme Court is set to overturn the landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide, this urgent, controversial book reframes abortion as a common part of a woman's reproductive life, one that should be accepted as a moral right with positive social implications. Nearly fifty years after the Roe v. Wade ruling, “Abortion” is still a word that is said with outright hostility by many, despite the fact that one in three American women will have terminated at least one pregnancy by menopause. Even those who support a woman’s right to an abortion often qualify their support by saying abortion is a “bad thing,” an “agonizing decision,” making the medical procedure so remote and radioactive that it takes it out of the world of the everyday, turning an act that is normal and necessary into something shameful and secretive. Meanwhile, the rights once upheld by the Supreme Court are threatened to be repudiated and systematically eroded by state laws designed to end abortion outright. Pro reaffirms the priority of a woman’s life and health, and discusses why terminating a pregnancy can be a force for good for women, families, and society. It is time, Pollitt argues, that we reclaim the lives and the rights of women and mothers. “A refreshing and comprehensive look at abortion rights...Pro is a passionate plea—and a book that is needed now more than ever.”—Salon “Ultimately, Pollitt is arguing not just for reproductive rights but for reproductive justice, which places the right to mother, or not, within the global context of human rights and social and economic justice, inextricable from the fight for universal health insurance, immigration reform and a host of social challenges.”—The Chicago Tribune

This account was written both for women facing a decision about abortion in a crisis pregnancy and for the people who love them. Are there facts to be known or are there only emotional and political aspects to a woman's right to choose? How can one support a woman facing this difficult decision?

Examines the issues, people, and beliefs on both sides of the abortion conflict.

Supermom is at the end of her rope. "Maternal Desire" shows mothers who work a full-time job and take care of their family that there is another way. The author explores maternal enjoyment as she does maternal anxiety, and offers not just understanding but the exhilaration of seeing a universal frustration discussed clearly for the first time.

A daring, funny, and poignant novel about the desire and duty to procreate, by one of our most brilliant and original writers. Motherhood treats one of the most consequential decisions of early adulthood—whether or not to have children—with the intelligence, wit and originality that have won Sheila Heti international acclaim, and which led her previous work, How Should a Person Be?, to be called "one of the most talked-about books of the year" (TIME magazine). Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti's narrator considers, with the same urgency, whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, body, family, friends, mysticism and chance, she struggles to make a moral and meaningful choice. In a compellingly direct mode that straddles the forms of the novel and the essay, Motherhood raises radical and essential questions about womanhood, parenthood, and how—and for whom—to live.

My Mom Had an Abortion is a unique coming-of-age tale told by a self-described dyslexic-asexual-lesbian-feminist teenager and illustrated by body-positive comic artist Tatiana Gill. We follow our protagonist Beezus B. Murphy as she chronicles her evolving understanding of menstruation, reproduction, and abortion and finds her place in a confusing world. Initially influenced by harmful narratives in pop media such as the “the pregnant teenager” cliche, we watch Beezus’s ideas change as her body changes and as she learns more about the intricacies of her family history and her mom’s own reproductive experiences. She grows from a confused, out-of-place kid into a self-assured, empathetic, and strong-willed activist teen. As Beezus says, “People shouldn’t be shamed for getting or not getting abortions. Young people absorb the information that we gather from our surroundings. Sometimes it’s good information and other times it can be harmful. But now I realize abortion is perfectly normal and should be kept safe and legal.” Sprinkled with pop culture references, hilariously apt descriptions of unwanted body changes and menstruation like the chapter “Blood, Bath, and Beyond,” and instantly understandable revelations of growing-up, this beautifully illustrated short graphic novel crucially fills a cultural gap around complexities of abortion, pop culture, body changes, and finding out where we fit in.

Pregnant and single, Kalya M. Becker was luckier than many teenagers. She had the support of her family and a group of good friends to help her through her pregnancy. When she was a senior at a Catholic high school, she learned she was going to have a baby. The father, hundreds of miles away at a military base, said, "Get an abortion. It's the only answer." To Keera With Love is the dramatic story of one teen's journey from early childhood in a healthy, happy and protected home environment to the harsh reality of becoming a mother too soon. Kayla Becker and her two brothers, raised by a divorced mother, a successful regional media broadcaster, learned that a family can stick together and deal with a personal crisis productively.To Keera With Love is a story of courage and of pain many teen mothers go through while making live decisions for herself and her child.